On May 29, 2019, with the anniversary of the Fall of Constantinople approaching, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave a municipal election campaign speech saying that Istanbul will never be called “Constantinople” again.

However, the Turkish President is probably unaware that even Istanbul is a name that the Greeks actually gave to the city. Specifically, “Istanbul” derives from the Greek phrase “Is tin poli,” which means “into the city.”

In fact, throughout the many centuries of its existence, Greeks had referred to Constantinople as simply “Polis” (City). When one was going to the Polis, they would say “Is tin Poli” — a phrase which morphed into the modern term Istanbul.

The great city was called Constantinople by the entire wider world until the 20th century. Although the Ottomans had unofficially called it Istanbul for years, the official name change took place in 1930, after the establishment of the modern Turkish Republic.